This blog is dedicated to Christian (Chris) Velten - my brother. He went missing while travelling in Mali in 2003, following in the footsteps of the explorer Mungo Park.
It is a celebration of his time amongst us - his family and friends - and hopefully, anyone who knew him will help to contribute to this record of Chris's amazing personality and love of life.

Thursday, 3 March 2016

Saturday Live: The Final Push?

Hello everyone

I’ve got something I’d like you to help me with - it involves positive thoughts… much like our ‘circle’ of positive thoughts at Chris’ 40th party.

Rather bizarrely, I’m going to be on 'Saturday Live' this Saturday morning on BBC Radio 4 (9am -10.30am). I never normally listen to the show as I’m usually in a swimming pool with the children, but on 16th January, Freya had a cold, and we stayed at home. On the show that morning was a girl called ‘Claire’ from LostBox, talking about reuniting lost things with their owners, and the explorer, Levison Wood, who we were watching on TV travelling through the Himalayas. In my mind, I connected the two to create - Lost Explorer. And you all know who that is… So, I immediately wrote an email to the show along the lines of ‘I haven’t a clue why I’m writing to you, but I know I have to...’ and explained about our lost explorer. I heard nothing and forgot about it.

Out of the blue, the producer emails me on 28th January - could she talk to me. So she rang…

We talked about Christian, our hope that he’s still alive, what he was like, what he was doing out in Africa, when we last heard from him, how do we cope day-to-day with his loss and then onto my work as a memoir ghostwriter, funeral director writer-in-residence and the importance of recording live stories, etc.

After we’d exhausted every topic, she said, “We’d love you to come on the show. When we have a good mix of guests for you to appear with, I’ll call you.”

(You’ll love this next bit, Rob W) She called me back on 25th February - could I be at the studio on 5th March? I will be appearing as ‘Hannah Velten’ (my maiden name), just to confuse many of you!

As most of you will know, I’m absolutely convinced that Christian is going to turn up (so is Mum) and I think this MIGHT just be the final push that’s needed to get him home - in my mind, the positive ‘circle’ was the start of that journey.

So, I’d basically like you all to get those positive ‘Come home, Chris/Chrissie/Relts/Christian’ thoughts and prayers going while I’m on air - there are 4 guests, so I will be dipping in and out of the conversations. It will be emotional, so Grant is going to be coming with me (thank you, Sharon, for making that possible), but I hope someone somewhere listening will hold the key we need. Christian won’t be anything like the man who left for Africa, but having him home, in whatever state, will be better than this limbo hell.

Many thanks to you all and lots of loveHannah x

P.S Please do pass this on to anyone else who you feel might like to join in with the positive vibes.

4 comments:

You have my positive thoughts. I have just heard you on Saturday live and was especially moved by your sad story maybe moreso when I heard that Chris had his 40th birthday last year and my son is exactly the same age as your brother. My thoughts are with you and your family.

I was sent the article about Chris by my sister who lives in Kenya. I have asked her to put it at the Aeroclub of East Africa and hopefully one of the many expatriates that are member there might recognise him.Never give up no matter how long it takes!

Hannah i hope your recent appeals wether it be on radio or tv finds you renewed hope .I watch many programmes about people who disappear and its surprising how many do.With the recent news that someone requested friendship on facebook and of his photo and his name there is hope.I cant imagine how over the years your family must of had hopes of finding him or a least hearing some news .keep on doing your search and your blogs and keep people aware, as today was the first time i had heard about your missing brother .Your in my prayers

If you'd like to contribute to Tales of Chris:

I started this blog on Chris's birthday - the fifth one he's had since leaving for his African trip. I thought it was about time that there was a communal cyberplace for friends and family to meet and create a record of all our memories of him. You never know; Chris might even get to know about it.

About Me

Welcome to my blog if you haven't stumbled this way before. I research and write about animal history (social history and animals = my passion). I live in the East Sussex countryside with my husband, young son and daughter and our Black Labrador.
Follow me on Twitter: @hannahvelten
and my website: www.hannahvelten.com.
I also run Red Letter Books, inspired by the loss of my brother, Chris. www.redletterbooks.co.uk